Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow.

A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.

I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.

If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.

Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

Reduce the supply of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and by precisely so much you increase the demand for and wages of white labor.

Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together permanently - forever - half slave and half free?"